ISFNE Chapter 8

Allison POV

I was wary of the offer as I picked at the last of my pancakes that I'd basically inhaled. Though Eleanor, the grandmother, seemed wonderful enough her grandson seemed less than thrilled if not downright hostile to the idea.

"You can run the bookstore for a few hours at a time working on and off with me or Simon if he's around. I have space in the apartment so you'll have a place to stay included and I can pay you a little as well," Eleanor said, completing the offer.

It was a shock really. She didn't know me at all, two days ago I'd been on the streets barely surviving and now suddenly I was being given to opportunity to be set up with a place to stay and food, and when I thought about it a little more, someone who knew how to handle babies. I would be stupid not to take it, though Simon's frown was doing its best to dissuade me.

"If you are truly willing to give me that chance I promise I will do everything in my power so you won't regret it," I said looking at both of them carefully. Eleanor was thrilled, Simon frowned almost imperceptibly.

"I'm sure I won't, Allison. It was Allison right?" Eleanor responded.

I exchanged a small glance with Simon, who was glaring at me with the name problem being addressed again. I quickly looked away, "Yes, it's Allison, Mrs. Timmons."

"Call me Eleanor," she said with a kind smile. Simon's frown deepened in the background.

Simon grabbed the few things he'd brought and announced he was heading back to his apartment. Eleanor wished him luck on his finals for next week, I followed suit. His dislike of me was very clear, but he wished me luck before heading over to talk briefly with his grandmother. I wondered why he was so against me. Maybe because I had kicked him in the shin. Then I realized, I'd never thanked him for saving my life. I turned to see if I could do so before he left only to realize he was already gone. I'd been so consumed in thought I'd missed him leaving. I sighed. Great. I waved away that thought I had other things to worry about. It was time to get my new life in order. Time to get to work.

Eric POV

She didn't dream of me. I couldn't fathom it. Her mind should be ripe with memories after the dam had been broken less than a week ago yet I'd had no visits from her consciousness. It was suspicious to be certain. Almost as if she weren't giving her mind a chance to dream, a dangerous game to play. She either wasn't sleeping or she was inducing herself into a deep and dreamless sleep.

I growled for the umpteenth time in utter frustration. What had I done so horribly in our first meeting that she was so determined to keep away from another one? I'd been civil. We hadn't parted on the best terms sure, but did we ever? And after what had happened the other day when I'd tapped back into her emotions I needed to talk to her again. That gave me pause. Of course, that was the only thing that had changed in the past couple days, and she wanted to keep me in the dark about it. She'd break down eventually, she'd have to sleep sometime and when that started again I was sure I'd make another appearance shortly. Until then, persistence was going to be key.

Simon POV

I didn't see the girl until over a week later. I came into the bookstore after my last day at the University for the school year and found her behind the counter writing in the ledger. I walked over and leaned on the counter before addressing her.

"Is Grams in back or is she upstairs?" I asked somewhat curtly.

She looked up in surprise, she hadn't noticed me, "She's upstairs, Mr. Timmons," she said timidly meeting my gaze.

I was immediately struck by her bright blue eyes and the dark circles she'd obviously tried to conceal. "Having trouble sleeping?" I asked with a frown of concern.

"Oh? No, nothing to worry about," she said clearly trying to close down the subject, only making me more persistent.

"What's with the new color contacts?"

She looked at me in confusion, "What do you mean?"

"Oh, come off it, I know your eyes were violet before and suddenly they're piercing blue?"

She said nothing but instead avoided my gaze and picked up a stack of books from the counter to reshelf. I stepped in front of her way around the counter, "Come on, level with me."

"Please let me by, Mr. Timmons," she said with a strained politeness. I crossed my arms. She huffed, blowing her bangs away from her forehead briefly, set down the stack of books on the counter, and met my gaze evenly. She wasn't challenging me or glaring in annoyance, instead she was calmly standing in front of me, looking at me expectantly as if she knew I had more to say to her; but as I looked into her eyes I could see the lurking worry and fear in them and that she was valiantly trying not to let them show. I stood down, I didn't want to scare her. I leaned against the counter so that I no long blocked her exit.

"Is there something preventing you from sleeping?"

"Just myself."

"You are preventing yourself from sleeping? You realize that's extremely unhealthy. Why?" I said in indignation.

"I don't believe that's exactly your business," she replied calmly.

"Allison-" I said with a sigh as I pinched the bridge of my nose and readjusted my glasses.

"Oh, so it's Allison now," she said teasingly, walking past me with the books.

"Well I have nothing else to call you, do I?" I shot back then I bit my tongue and breathed deeply, collecting myself, "forgive me that was uncalled for. However, as I am somewhat invested in the idea of you staying healthy, could you please explain yourself?"

"I'm just sleeping in intervals," she said slowly meandering about the store looking for the correct places for the books she held.

I walked over to cut her off, "You're denying yourself REM sleep? You need that desperately, Allison, I'm surprised you're still functioning. The dreaming stage is when all the actually benefits of sleep ta-"

"I don't want to dream," she cut me off, looking down at the floor and then meeting my gaze with piercing blue eyes shining with unshed tears, "I ran out of sleep pills and I just can't dream. If I dream all I dream about is him and…I can't relive that every…every night," she said, her voice getting quieter and obviously straining to remain stable as her gaze fell to the ground again.

"Eric?" I probed gently as I could. A small nod was my only response.

I felt a pang of pity toward her at this new information. She'd completed what I'd puzzled out about her with that small heartbreaking sentence, and though the girl was not on my list of favorite people, nobody deserved whatever she'd suffered through. Sure, I had no confirmation on the nature of how she'd been hurt, how deeply, how often etcetera, but still, I couldn't hate her with such knowledge.

"And the contacts?" I prodded.

"It's paranoid and insane but…I mean you noticed and they're just so distinctive I just-"

"You don't want him to find you," I finished the thought. There was a pause before she decided to move toward the next set of bookshelves to put the last book in place. I walked away and started down the hallway to head upstairs when she suddenly called out to me, "Mr. Timmons!" I paused and looked back at her, she'd come around the counter and was facing me at the other end of the hallway, "I-I never got to thank you for what you did the other night. I realize that I owe you my life."

"Grams is the one who brought you in, you can thank her."

"I have, but you knew how to help and you did. I was very lucky and I don't want you to think I am unaware of that, Mr. Timmons," she said with a small smile before walking out of sight to refill her arms with books to stock.

"It's just Simon," I called after her.

I let out a huff of frustration, damn, she was making me like her. She may be lying to us but her reasoning was unfortunately becoming more and more clear. She was still a mystery, and I couldn't stand being in the dark. I was going to find out about her somehow.

Allison POV

Eric was being very difficult to avoid. It was a constant battle to keep communication lines blocked, something that was even more fatiguing now that I was not sleeping well. He felt the moment I let down and pestered me when I did, something that had happened the moment Mr. Timmons left.

Love, please talk to me, he coaxed. I said nothing but let go of my stem on our communication, knowing I needed some time before I could cut him off once more; it was incredibly draining.

You're going to have to talk to me at some point, he stated, you are merely avoiding the inevitable. I will find out what you're hiding from me.

I sighed as I sat down on the couch in the bookstore, my hand coming to rest on my stomach that was finally showing much more noticeably. I was still coming to terms with the entire ordeal myself, I couldn't let Eric find out as well. The more I thought about it, the more I realized I had no clue how he would react. Would he be upset? Thrilled? Angry? Would he become all the more possessive? I looked down and ran my hand over my small baby bump gently, and then there were all the questions to raise about the child itself. What was it going to be? Was it human? Nosferatu? Was it going to take after its father? Why was it developing so quickly? I took a deep breath and quickly backtracked from that scary rabbit hole. I was going to get through this, I had already done so much that I thought would be impossible, this was not going to be where I faltered.

"Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I shall fear no evil, for Thou art with me. The Lord is my light and my salvation- whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life- of whom shall I be afraid?" I recited to myself as I relaxed leaning against the back of the couch. Whatever would come I was not alone.

Eric POV

Our second coupling was still less than consensual. It was an experiment, on my part, on many fronts that did not pan out quite as I'd hoped. I teased her, refusing to give her release in hopes that it would drive answers out of her quickly as I knew she was not going to like me touching her. It was a calculated risk to use it against her, but one I knew could pay off well. I either got my answer quickly or I got to experiment with my ideas that could slowly bring Faith back.

Firstly, her innocence had been taken painfully due to unwillingness and inexperience but then that left her with no desire to ever come back. She only knew pain, I wanted to show her pleasure, and I knew if she put her foot down and was stubborn about giving me the information I needed, I would have an opportunity to give her tastes of it. Secondly, I was going to have time to learn what would make her body sing. I would give her small moments of bliss so it would be more than rewarding for her to come back to me, which led to my end-game. Convincing her to ask me to follow through what I was starting. Tempting her to give in to passion. It took much longer than I would have imagined.

Her poor body was weak from the constant onslaught and she'd fallen asleep to recover but when she roused herself sometime during the early hours of the morning and I tried to gently prod into her mind, her walls went up with all the energy she had left. I took my opportunity and focused my attentions solely on her and making her beg for completion. She did so in shame, and despite her efforts contrary, enjoyed herself. I didn't keep her long enough after that for anything to come of it, but I doubt she was ready to fall back into my arms anytime soon. If anything, it drove her further away, the knowledge that she could, in any amount, enjoy my attention was frightening to her. That I could bring anything more than pain was dangerous in her eyes as she could never forgive my crimes against her, and they were numerous. I couldn't blame her; I could only try to atone by keeping her safe. Something I almost failed to do mere weeks later.

It had been another week and a half since Faith had stopped all communication. Sure I'd been able to get in snippets here and there but she still refused to respond or dream. I sat back and reread what I'd written. I wasn't proud of what had happened but I found myself feeling an urge to record it. I thought back to what had occurred after that stint. That small eye of the hurricane that had lasted around three weeks before all hell had broken loose with Xavier. But as I thought harder about those three weeks I remembered something that had happened before Xavier's attack. I'd found Faith sobbing in the bathroom. She'd refused to tell me what about. Something had definitely been up though; what I couldn't imagine.

I tried to move on, but something about it continued to nag at me. I was missing something. Something important. Something that made everything click into place. I cursed myself for not being able to put the pieces together but attempted to continue writing hoping more insight might reveal itself.

I couldn't bring myself to continue as my mind stubbornly refused to focus on anything other than those few memories. I finally gave up any hope of further writing and decided to call it a day. I picked up the book and pushed away from the desk with frustration, got up, and walked contemplatively toward my rooms…well, our rooms.

I sat down in her favorite armchair, the same one from the night I'd found her crying and went through my bits and pieces, trying desperately to see the big picture.

A Faith I'd virtually left alone for three weeks sobbing uncontrollably in the bathroom, her appetite had been rare, her personal upkeep had suffered terribly under her stress, I grabbed small bit after bit from my memory. She'd been about to talk to me that night before we'd been interrupted by Maxwell. She'd escaped so suddenly after we'd come to a sort of accord, she'd found something or done something that scared her to death and she was making every effort to keep it from me.

I ran my hands through my hair in agitation, that feeling was back. I was so damn close. I gazed down at the pages I'd written earlier and lazily reread it for errors.

Our second coupling was still less than consensual. It was an experiment, on my part, on many fronts that did not pan out quite as I'd hoped…Tempting her to give in to passion…She did so in shame…enjoyed herself…mere weeks later…

And suddenly, all the pieces fell together and revelation washed over me, leaving me wondering how I could have possibly been so blind. I felt like the wind had been knocked out of me as I gaped at the pages in my hands. Of course, everything made sense now, why she'd run, why she'd been so set on keeping me in the dark, even the things as small as her eating habits. But, most of all, it was abundantly clear why she'd been so willing to give up the small understanding we'd come to.

Faith was pregnant.

A/N: AHH THE PLOT THICKENS. Hope you guys are happy with how things are developing, I've definitely been leading up to the pregnancy thing for a while and was really proud of myself for that. Did anyone guess? Anyways, I'm still not going to promise things, that only sets me up for failure and random half year hiatuses. But I hope the wait has been worth it. Tbh that's partially why the wait has been so long, I want to give you guys quality chapters and make sure you are fully understanding every character. Feedback is always appreciated, I love all of you so much for reading this and being so encouraging throughout.

-Allisonfreedman